Friends And Atheism

I was born and raised Catholic, but over the years found that religion did nothing to answer the questions that I had. The more I delved into science, the more I found answers that made sense.
In recent years, I have strayed from the religious path of my family and become an atheist. It wasn't an easy thing to do; there was a lot of disapproval from my family, some of them even going so far as to tell me what I believe without even listening to what I was saying. Furthermore, having had it drilled into my brain that there was a god for so many years, it was hard to shift my mind out of thinking that way, but I knew that I felt that it was a farce.

Just the other day, I was friendship-dumped by one of my closest friends because of religion. He had said that evolution was clearly flawed, at which point I asked him, a la Darwin, if he thought it made more sense that 'God' would create many just for the survival of a few, and apparently that was enough to warrant ending a friendship. He said he couldn't be friends wtih someone who was so closed-minded to the one thing that unites us.

It breaks my heart to know that those of the religious persuasion think that religion is what unites us. It couldn't be further from the truth. Religion is what separates us, encourages us to judge others, condones feelings of superiority, and causes wars all over the world. I have lost friends solely because I don't believe there's some supreme being up above that created itself and everything on the planet. Just because I don't believe in God doesn't make me a terrible person, but they seem to think otherwise.

Since you’re such a fan of the sciences, perhaps you might consider a more intellectual and less perfunctory study of nature, science and the universe?

"A little knowledge of science makes man an atheist, but an in-depth study of science makes him a believer in God." - Francis Bacon

“The first gulp from the glass of natural sciences will turn you into an atheist, but at the bottom of the glass God is waiting for you.”

“In the history of science, ever since the famous trial of Galileo, it has repeatedly been claimed that scientific truth cannot be reconciled with the religious interpretation of the world. Although I am now convinced that scientific truth is unassailable in its own field, I have never found it possible to dismiss the content of religious thinking as simply part of an outmoded phase in the consciousness of mankind, a part we shall have to give up from now on. Thus in the course of my life I have repeatedly been compelled to ponder on the relationship of these two regions of thought, for I have never been able to doubt the reality of that to which they point.”

–Werner Heisenberg, who was awarded the 1932 Nobel Prize in Physics for the creation of quantum mechanics (which is absolutely crucial to modern science).

“Those who say that the study of science makes a man an atheist must be rather silly.”

–Nobel Prize winning physicist Max Born, who was instrumental in the development of quantum mechanics.

“I believe that the more thoroughly science is studied, the further does it take us from anything comparable to atheism.”

“If you study science deep enough and long enough, it will force you to believe in God.”

–Lord William Kelvin, who was noted for his theoretical work on thermodynamics, the concept of absolute zero and the Kelvin temperature scale based upon it.

“Science is incompetent to reason upon the creation of matter itself out of nothing. We have reached the utmost limit of our thinking faculties when we have admitted that because matter cannot be eternal and self-existent it must have been created.”

–Physicist and mathematician James Clerk Maxwell, who is credited with formulating classical electromagnetic theory and whose contributions to science are considered to be of the same magnitude to those of Einstein and Newton.

So good of you to cherry pick quotes out of context...gives you credibility with the other religious folks I am sure.

He is a nice fun fact for you.

If we found out tomorrow that everything we know about science is wrong. That evolution is shot down that the behaviors of particles don't move like we thought. Even if the whole of science was wrong all in one day.

That still doesn't prove that a deity exists.

The default answer isn't god.

The default answer is. We don't know. The sooner you recognize that, the sooner you can stop looking so foolish.

I mean, instead of delusions of omniscience, shouldn’t the fact that the sciences do not know the fundamental answers to humanity’s most burning questions lead you to humility rather than contemptuousness and openness rather then bigotry?

There is nothing more humbling than admitting you don't know. It is something that religious groups in their hubris struggle with. Because of this they come out with outrageous and strategically ambiguous ways of portraying scenarios. Because its impossible to just admit you don't know. For someone who is so arrogant as to construct a deity who both creates the universe but listens to their prayers.

With regard to teepe's comment about losing a friend, "...you can mend that if you want." I say this: He unfriended you, not the other way around. The only way you could "mend" it would be to deny your beliefes. Destry is right ! His intollerence of your beliefs means he's not worthy of your freindship. If aitheists were as organized as theists, I think they would surpass most religions as far as PRACTICING members go.

I am not an atheist but respect others whether they believe in a supreme being or not. I agree that religion seems to divide more than it unites. Why I consider myself spiritual instead of religious. You write very well and got your point across in your story.

You don't need those people. Brainwashed people are the close-minded ones. They did you a favor. Just because you grew up knowing them doesn't mean you have spend your entire life agreeing with them. There's plenty of people who agree with your point of view. Spend your extra time with them instead.

Of course you are not a terrible friend, they are the ones close-minded ,they just put the science away and whenever it is the talk about the science they use it to prove words of god ,what a **** , anyway what unites us is that we are all humans with brains to think .<br /><br />One more thing , this is why many countries are in the back of the list just because they think it is all because of GOD or written in the bible , in my country whenever the west make a breakthrough in science they back to the bible and tell yes it is all here written in the verse or that.<br /><br />In the past few days I was looking for the relationship between enisten and god , and found that he almost read for all philosiphers , and the one he attracted to was "Spanoza"'s god , what people thinks when the most genius person on earth is thinking.

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